PWP: The Strategist eyes Spa success ahead of summer break

After a respectable showing at the Hungarian Grand Prix, ‘The Strategist’ will be looking to head into the summer break with a flourish in the latest round of Pit Wall Predictions, presented by Gulf.

Sitting in P74 in the standings, on 190 points, our Grove Guru is sitting 40 points off the top with 11 rounds still to go in the 2023 Formula 1 season.

Once again, wet weather could play a part at the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which makes forecasting what will happen as difficult as ever.

Keep reading to see what The Strategist is predicting for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Lap 11-20. This race throws up a huge challenge over pit stops. Pirelli suggest that the optimal time to stop would be between lap 16-22 in a one-stop race. Having considered this, I’m backing Alex to stop in this window but wet weather does provide a headache in terms of tyre choice and strategy.

Lap 21-30. The only issue with this is the fact that rain is a huge threat, which means we could see wet weather tyres in usage and being pushed further into the race. I’ve gone for what I believe will be around the midway point for our first stop if wet weather is brought into the equation.

One. The threat of rain leads me to believe there will be some attrition in this race. Will everyone be able to make it round Turn 1 unscathed? I’m predicting we’ll see the Safety Car deployed at least once in Spa.

A pattern has emerged now we’re further into the season, showing Alex has stopped first more than Logan. With this in mind, I’m backing Alex to stop first again at the Belgian GP.

21-30 laps. I believe we’ll see Alex run for over 21 laps on the same set of tyres during the Belgian GP. If our No23 is on Intermediates, he should be able to run them for a long period of time.

21-30 laps. Same for Logan, I feel that we’ll see a stint in this window.

Inters. As mentioned, the threat of rain makes this a tricky choice. The rain looks consistent across the weekend so I’m expecting Alex to run the inters during the Belgian GP.

Hard. IF the conditions dry up for Sunday’s race, I am splitting my strategy to cover the eventuality that Logan will finish the race on the hard tyre.